Except for a living man there is nothing more wonderful than books. They teach us and open their hearts for us. We learn many things by reading books. They make the world much more larger for us. They tell us how great and wonderful man is. Books expand the boundaries of the familiar world for us.

Books stir up our imagination, fill up our minds with the new ideas, fill our life with great expectations of joy and happiness, they develop our intellect. Some books arouse our interest, delight, feelings of curiosity and admiration, some make us think which is very important and demand great erudition on the part of the readers, some entertain, amuse us giving pleasure and delight. We can hardly read some books and stories for laughing and some dramas and romances for tears. Books arouse different emotions in us; they penetrate deep into our souls and hearts. We love and suffer, feel sympathy or indignation, cry or laugh, struggle and reach success together with the characters of the books. Books have a great impact on our characters. We are influenced by good examples, they add to moulding of our characters and forming our moral values. Books give food for our mind and warmth for our soul. We should love books as they are the sources of knowledge and can make us strong, intelligent, well educated.

There are different kinds of books, which appeal to different kinds of readers. They are science-fiction and fantasy stories, detective and spy stories, tales and fairy-tales, books about animals and nature, adventure books and books about travels, humorous stories, historical dramas, biographies and autobiographies, essays. It’s so nice to read poems which gradually are unfolding and revealing their rich inner self, as one reads them again and over again.

Reading is like a great adventure for me. Starting a book is always a real thrill and I want the writer to carry me off to new unknown places I’ve never been to before, to get acquainted with new people.

There are so many different books by different writers, but only few of them become our favourites. Why? Because all books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hour and the books of all time. It’s my strong belief that much depends on the author’s skill with language, his manner of writing. In my opinion, if an author possesses an ability to portray life very truthfully and convincingly, if he depicts his character so vividly that people immediately recognize themselves, if he describes nature, events, people with love and understanding, if he has an ability to make people laugh or cry, his books will certainly appeal to many readers, they will enjoy the popularity, they will become the books of all time. It goes without saying that each author has his own peculiarities of writing.

TV, computer, audio-visual instruments in general are all gradually taking over what used to be the domain of literature. But I don’t think that reading is dying, that reading is a vanishing custom, that books will excite people, they will give keen delight and pleasure, they will create a special mood, because a book is one of the greatest wonders in the world. It gives us a unique chance to link up with the authors who lived hundreds of years ago. Thanks to books we can talk to people who lived in different centuries. Through reading books we hear their voices, thoughts and feeling. It gives us an insight not only into the past, but also into the future. The book is a faithful and undemanding friend: it can be put aside and taken up again at any moment.

Attitude of modern people towards books is not so good; because they think reading books is boring. People prefer to watch TV or video than to read a book. But some people like to read books. They prefer not to sit near a TV-set and watch in the “box”, but to read some fantastic story. Lets talk about this people. They can be divided into some groups. The most popular group is people who read fantastic stories. Another not so popular, but a very interesting group is people who prefer romantic and detective stories. And the last group is people who like to read non-fiction literature. There are many other small groups, but those three is bigger than others.

What concerns me, I prefer to read fantastic, romantic and humorous stories. But most of all I like compositions of Ursula Le Guin, Belayev, Pol Anderson such as “Wizard of Earthsea”, “Professor Doyl’s Head”, “Endlessness” and many others. I like them for their original thoughts, unrepeatable and sometimes terrifying plot. For me it is always a pleasure to read fantastic stories. I like when biorobots, mutants, monsters, and wizards appear in a story. It is so exciting! Most from all fantastic stories I like Philip Dick’s story “Endlessness”. In this story Ph. Dick told us about a scientific expedition that lands on the unknown meteorite and under the influence of radiation people and animals, which were on the starship, began evolutional mutation. They became more progressive morally but weak physically. But one passage aroused unforgettable emotions in me, when people flied away from this meteorite and at the end of the story we see evolutionally mutated experimental mice, which help people to unmutate back and return back home.

I think this fantastic story helps me to enrich my knowledge, deepen and widen our outlook, develop our imagination. The plot of the story is fascinating. This story makes me think about the future of our civilization.

And finishing my story about books I want to tell you about my favourite Belorussian writer. Every Belarussian man has his favourite Belarusian writer. As for me, he is Janka Kupala. He was born in the village Vyazynka. His father was a poor peasant, that’s why his family always needed money. From his childhood Janla was fond of folk music, traditions and songs. Later it reflects on his creative works. He wrote such popular folk poems as “Dream near the Hill”, “She and I”, “The Grave of a Lion”. In the last poem he wrote about strong and brave peasant, called Masheka. He loved one woman. But after a rich man married her, he settled in the forest and began to rob rich men. Once when he robbed a cart he saw a beautiful woman, who looked like his love. She influenced on Masheka, and he didn’t kill her. But some days later she killed Masheka and came back home. After that the place where it happened was called The Grave of the Lion or Mogilev. Kupala represents one of the peaks of Belarussian poetry. Not only owing to his genius, but to the fact that he was always with the people, most fully expressed the Spirit, the character and hopes of his people; belonged to the people, and wrote works which all appealed to the people.

Kupala infused fresh blood into the veins of popular poetry, his own blood.